KLONDIKE INN CLOSES DOWN: Belle Carlyle, a hostess at the restaurant in the Klondike Inn, on Las Vegas Boulevard South, waits for customers Tuesday. The Klondike's closure last week was the second that the 80-year-old dealt with this year. She worked at the Boardwalk for 19 years. It closed in January. Photo by Samantha Clemens.
Authorities gather at the scene of a shooting Tuesday at McCarran International Airport. Las Vegas police shot a knife-wielding man after he grabbed a 3-year-old boy and ran past a security checkpoint. Photo by John Gurzinski.
Las Vegas police shot a knife-wielding man at McCarran International Airport after he grabbed a 3-year-old boy and ran past a security checkpoint Tuesday.
The suspect, identified as Michael John Allgood of Wilsonville, Ore., snatched the child from the Kid's Wear and Toys store across from the security checkpoint for the A and B gates, authorities said.
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Allgood had been walking through the store alone for a few minutes before he picked up the child as the boy was playing near the rear of the store, said Blanca Gomez, a worker at the store. The boy and his family, who are from Mesquite, were waiting to board a flight to Minnesota.
"We were talking about pterodactyls, and all of a sudden, he grabbed him," the boy's mother told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "It happened so fast, I couldn't do anything."
While still carrying the child, Allgood was confronted by three police officers. Allgood held a 4-inch serrated blade to the boy's throat, police said. When Allgood took the knife from the child's throat and lunged at police, two officers shot him and a third officer used a Taser on him, police said.
Allgood, who authorities said suffers from a mental illness and has had previous violent confrontations with authorities in Oregon, was hospitalized in critical condition.
The boy was unharmed. His parents told the Pioneer Press they were quickly reunited with their son afterward.
"He was hugging a police officer, and he had a fistful of chocolate," the boy's mother said. "I grabbed him and he did not want to let me go."
MONDAY
Prostitution arrests net part-time judge
A weekend police sweep targeting street prostitution in the Las Vegas Valley resulted in 184 arrests, including a part-time judge who was jailed on a solicitation charge.
The arrests were made during a police undercover operation called P.I.M.P., short for Prostitutes Incarcerated by Metropolitan Police.
Mark Peplowski, listed by Clark County as a justice of the peace pro-tem, was arrested during a sting operation on Fremont Street. Detectives said he solicited a sex act from a prostitute, according to police reports.
"Obviously, when you run an operation such as this, you are casting out a net ... and we get people from all walks of life," Las Vegas police Sgt. Chris Jones said.
TUESDAY
Judge talks about shooting by sniper
Washoe Family Court Judge Chuck Weller talked to the media for the first time since a sniper's bullet passed through his chest, narrowly missing his heart on June 12.
At the briefing, Weller said, "I could tell you that I have five entrance wounds. I would be speculating on the number of bullets. I think there was more than one."
Regarding his health, he said, "I think I'm going to be 100 percent, but I'm not right now. I'm mostly OK."
Weller plans to return to the bench shortly, but he said a specific date has not been set.
The man charged in the shooting, Reno pawnshop owner Darren Mack, is also charged with killing his estranged wife, Charla, earlier that day.
Weller was presiding over the couple's divorce.
WEDNESDAY
Electricity rate increase on hold
The Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a Nevada Power Co. rate case agreement that will keep rates unchanged until probably June 2007.
Nevada Power originally requested to recover expenses for fuel and purchased wholesale power through an Aug. 1 rate increase.
What state consumer advocate Eric Witkoski said probably would have been a 6 percent rate increase was avoided through a negotiated settlement with Nevada Power.
"We all recognized that keeping rates stable, in particular during this summer, is in the best interest of our individual customers and the community in general," Nevada Power President Donald "Pat" Shalmy said in a statement.
THURSDAY
'Legal 2000' tactic targets homeless
The city of Las Vegas plans to increase its use of legal powers to force homeless people who are considered dangerous or unable to care for themselves to receive services, officials said.
Las Vegas marshals received training last week in how to exercise "Legal 2000," the authority which allows law enforcement officers and medical professionals to hospitalize individuals deemed mentally ill for up to 72 hours.
"We are going to be more active in this arena, in trying to make our parks safer," Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell said.
The issue has come to the fore after a steady stream of complaints from people in neighborhoods around Huntridge Circle Park that homeless there have made the city facility unsafe.
FRIDAY
Judge rules woman at fault
The former girlfriend of Family Court Judge Steven Jones was to blame for an incident that prompted domestic violence charges against the judge last week, a judge ruled.
Washoe County District Court Judge Charles McGee found that Jones' former girlfriend, Amy McNair, was the aggressor in a heated confrontation between the couple at Jones' home on June 20.
"You were the one who was escalating the situation," McGee told McNair.
McGee offered his assessment of the domestic violence allegations against Jones as he refused Friday to extend a temporary protective order on behalf of McNair against Jones.
The ruling does not affect a pending misdemeanor criminal charge against Jones in Henderson.
